And who's going to tranplant our's??? LOL!! ahhhhhh, the joy of it all!!

OK Zen. I hear your plea. Where are you from and will there be snacks involved?
Joann

A better question is....what drinks are involved?

Wouldnt it be so much fun to travel from yard to yard, and everyone help each other plant out there seedlings ???

Almost like a painting party, but much much more fun and rewarding...LOL

I would love to supply the homemade cookies...

Ok,I'm in,I heard drinks and cookies!:)

Put on the grill, send me a ticket and I'll be there!!

(I love planting those little babies)

Carrie

I would be so happy if my entire neighborhood wsowed. How much fun would that be?? I got one of my friends involved, but she lives quite a ways away from me, so it is not quite the same. I would love just walking from one yard to another! It would make planting out so much more fun!

Ya, gardenluv, and just think how pretty the neighborhood would be! People would be doing drive-bys just for the view. As close as I've gotten are the neighbors coming over for plants. However, they keep planting them in the backyards so I can't see them!

I'll help you zen, just as soon as I get my hundreds of containers planted lol!

I'll bring ice cream sandwiches for a cool-down from the running and plunking in the hot sun!

Honey, I'll provide barbecue if you come help me!! I remember last year starting out with a plan and ending up with..."here's a couple inches...in you GO!" And, yes, I did have some surprises when things grew up. But what a wonderful wealth of flowers!

I've started slowly this season - not so many perennials this time (I know my space is limited this time even though my garden is huge compared with many others). But a month from now I'll start on the annuals and - oh my! - it's going to be massive. I may have to take a day or two off from work to get them all planted out. Awwwwww...LOL!

I'll bring a couple of bottles of wine. Then if they don't all get planted, well, who cares?

Zen - where are you? You might want to fix your memberinformatin on your posts. Then again maybe not.

I'm in Southern Maine. I LOVE having Potlucks! We can all have a potluck planting party!

Sounds good to me! :)

BTW, I posted elsewhere on a container idea I have. The 2 1/2 gallon Poland Spring Water bottles...the ones with the little tap. These make perfect WSing containers. Could that with longer cut louver scrap from vertical blinds people get cut at HD or Lowes and I make a triple chamber planting container. What a nice space sever these make because they are rectangular, are about 7-8" tall so have plenty height, and they are free free free!

My roomie uses these and forgets to put them out for recycling, so now I have about 10 containers, which when divided into 1/3's with the vertical blind louvers, I now have 30 or so WSing containers!!!

Woohoo!!

I'll try to take pics of one when I WS into it as a simple demo.

I cut one, but haven't sown it yet, but, like the milk jug technique, keep about 2-3" uncut as a little hinge. Works great!

I've already tested out the vertical louvers, and I cut 18 of them to size, with the little curves to follow the shape of the container...18 louvers cut took about 5 minutes, and that creates 27 planting sections.

Mark-

PS: Am I crazy to be so excited by this or what?
PPS: Should I water things in before sealing my containers, or should I let nature take it's course? I have 5 small holes on the top and 5 holes on the bottom for transpiration and drainage, but I want to make sure I am watering appropriately...?

I never got into particulars of what I am going to try to WS now....

Baikal Skullcap
Mad Dog Skullcap
Spilanthes
Stevia
Valerian
A couple Ceomes
Kiss Me over the Garden Gate
Malvia
Mignonette
Goldilocks
Gloriosa Daisy
Snapdragons
Sunflower Mix
Mixed Ameranth
Gaillarda
Hollyhocks
Beneficials Mix
Wildflower Mix
Winter Savory
Echinacea
Greek Oregano (Will that *do* here?)
Mullein
Anise
Arnica Chanissons
Wild Bergamot
Purple Coneflower
Elecampagne
Horehound
Marjoram
Marshmallow
Lavenderr.

These are things I'm adding to the hundred or so other vegetable, herb and flower seeds I've already ordered.

This will be the death of me.

I am in big trouble too....my first year winter sowing and I just wanted to do a "few containers". I even remember Diggerdee laughing at a "few containers" on a thread a few months ago over at the New England Gardening forum (come on over and check it out, zengoes, since you are in New England). She was right though! It's going to be closer to 75-100 containers, maybe more...hehe. (Not to mention what's out there overwintering in pots, oh well.)

Now I am working on lists for the fourth and fifth seed orders this winter!! I am specifically interested in native plants and practically every species I read about I want to grow. I am now marking up my list with "must have" and "wait till '09?".

I'm a goner now...I'll be digging and planting and making lasagne beds for the next 5 years. :)

It's so funny how the obsession keeps growing as the winter sowing season moves on. I have so many more containers than I have room to plant them, and now I find that I'm online looking for Dahlia seeds.

I still have my annuals to winter sow too, but not for several more weeks. To pacify DH, I keep telling him that all the containers won't germinate and that's why there are so many of them!

It's a lot of fun though, isn't it?

Speaking of winter sowing parties, when I'm out walking my dog around the neighborhood, I find myself checking everyone's backyard, if possible, to see if they might possibly be winter sowing!

~Linda

Well, terrene, I'm still laughing! Okay, maybe you'll do 100 containers THIS year, but wait till next year, lol! It's just a plain ol' obsession, isn't it? Ah well, we could be doing a lot worse things, I suppose.

I am definitely one who sows more than she has room for. I keep saying I'm going to make more beds and extend my existing ones, but it just never seems to happen. Or at least what small amount I do accomplish never seems to be enough. Of course, it might help if I didn't sow so darn much...

:)
Dee
Who got six seeds orders in this week alone, not to mention some more seeds from a GW friend....

i think in this tiny town of mine, i am the only ws'er, i was talking about it at church the other day and no one said anything about it, just kinda looked at me funny, i hope i don't mess mine up, then they can see that its as great as everyone says! LOL if i stop trading id' be fine!! LOL
i did tell hubby that i would stop trading unless i saw something really great!! i'm seeing them skullcaps now i'll have to go look for some now, HEE HEE ;'))

I got an order in for Baikal and Mad Dog Skullcaps, actually. Gotta place it tonight..my 85 packs of seeds. about 15 don't look like they'll be WSable, tho....

Time will tell I guess. I'm still gonna do indoor sowing on many to compare...if I can get things together for that....

egads!

zengeos, I'll take the bottom third of your list if you can get someone else to plant the other 2/3 of your seeds. ;-) I think I might be even more desperate than you because I'm into butterflies too. Or maybe so are you? For someone who isn't picture this, Sicily 1938...ha, one of my favorite shows ever...Golden Girls. I thought of it when I was typing "picture this". Anyway, can you imagine getting nuts over butterflies and feeling like you have to look up every single possible one that you *might* get at your place and try to find out everything about each one and also each caterpillar's host plants? :-O I got hooked on that and then someone said those famous words, "You ought to go check out the other forum." Great, now I have another addiction! lol

Oh, btw, I looked down over your list of plants and you have some host plants so if you see any caterpillars on the cleome, malvia, snapdragons, sunflowers, or hollyhocks, I hope that you won't smoosh them. :) I haven't been into butterfly gardening more than a couple years but those caterpillars have actually become cute to me. lol I'm so anxious to see what I get on my plants this coming year! Some people would gasp in horror if they'd see a caterpillar eating their carrot tops, dill, or parsley, but if I see one, I think, "Oh boy, another Black Swallowtail to for me to bring inside and raise! :) Yeah, I'm a butterfly kook and now I'm also a wintersowing kook, but they both make me happy. More work but I really don't mind. I love the Gardenweb forums and when I think of all the years that I sowed my seeds indoors, I can hardly believe it. The ws is the way to go!

The winter of 2006-2007 I "wintersowed" some swamp milkweed seeds, but it was kind of by accident. I read that they needed a cold period and thought that instead of putting them in the frig, I would just plant them in a big pot and put it outside all winter. It worked like a charm and I was rewarded by dozens of milkweed plants that later fed a lot of hungry Monarch caterpillars. I don't think I watered them that entire winter and they were still okay! So I'm sure all of my seeds that I've wintersown will be just fine, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the plants grow this year. I guess I'll have to wait until next year to see most of the perennials bloom. This is fun, and I know you think so too. :)